"Severe Duty" wrote in his first post in this thread:

>I probably got some facts wrong. Correcting editorial welcome.

Ok. Correcting editorial as follows:

Mojave was originally a crew change point for SP trains between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, starting in 1876. In the ensuing years, Mojave was abolished and then reestablished numerous times as a crew change point for the SP. The practice of changing main line SP freight train crews at Mojave ended permantly in 1929.

On the other hand, Mojave was NEVER a crew change point (except for helper engine crews) for the Santa Fe after it began running through trains between between Bakersfield and Barstow, which started shortly before May 1, 1900.

These changes on the SP and the Santa Fe obviously did not take place in "the 1950s" as "Severe Duty" and "Mistetower" speculate. Also, the introduction of diesel-electric locomotives had no affect on crew changes at Mojave.

Some of the significant changes that did happen at Mojave were the discontinuance of Santa Fe steam helpers on November 1, 1949, the discontinuance of SP steam (used on various locals) there in November 1953 and the end of yard switching jobs in 1970.

"Mistetower" wrote:

>I don't know if the AT&SF San Francisco Chief stopped there in the middle of the night.

Mojave was a stop for the San Francisco Chief.

>It sat until April 1992...before the SP tore it down.

Actually, the Mojave depot was demolished on October 1, 1992 (I learned this when I happened to call my aunt and uncle in Mojave (he was retired SP) that day and they told me the depot had been torn down that morning. I then passed along this info to Phil Serpico for use in the book he was writing at the time, "Coast Lines Depots, Valley Division").